Podcast Summary

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Episode: He Turned Pickleball Software into a $3M/yr SaaS
Date: February 18, 2026
Host: Nathan Latka
Guest: Ben Borden (Co-founder, Pod Play Technologies)

Episode Overview

This episode features Ben Borden, co-founder of Pod Play Technologies, a company transforming the recreational sports industry with a hybrid of physical club operations and SaaS, particularly in the booming world of pickleball. Ben discusses the company's journey from autonomous ping pong clubs to a full-stack software and hardware platform serving over 200 locations and 2,000+ courts—generating $3M in ARR. The conversation dives into lessons learned from fintech and hedge funds, the challenges and opportunities of vertical SaaS for physical venues, and the evolving business of sports technology.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

From Hedge Funds to Purpose-Driven Sports Tech (01:14–04:41)

• Background: Ben and co-founder Max Kogler originally managed a successful hedge fund before switching gears to sports tech.
  • Quote: "We like to say those were our days of turning math into money. But it left both of us feeling a little bit empty from kind of a purpose standpoint." – Ben (01:20)
• Transition Motivation: Desire to make a broader impact and “increase the amount of fun being had in the world.”
• Shared the resilience forged during a hedge fund’s "black swan event" and the focus on investor relations during adversity.
  • Quote: "You really learn things about people when you go through adversity together." – Ben (03:54)

Birth of Ping Pod: Autonomous Recreation Clubs (04:41–09:19)

• Ping Pod Origin: Founded in 2019 to solve the problem of high-cost recreational venues in NYC by removing labor from the business model and extending hours.
  • Autonomous access, contactless entry, and increased efficiency were differentiators, resulting in high utilization and profitability even during COVID-19.
  • Quote: "If you could do that [remove labor], you could extend your hours to 24/7. So you're increasing capacity at the same time that you're reducing kind of your labor overhead." – Ben (04:55)
• Initial Results: Hundreds of thousands in revenue from a single NYC location, 70% utilization at ~$30/hour average price (07:25–08:32).

Launch and Scaling of Pod Play (09:27–14:28)

• From Club Operator to Platform: Leveraged technology built for Ping Pod to serve broader recreational industries as a SaaS/hardware provider.
• Full Stack Solution: Digital scoreboards, video replays, and viral social integrations drive user experience and club revenue.
  • Quote: "The magic in this is combining hardware software in a single kind of full stack solution." – Ben (10:48)
• Team: Tech team led by Eliot Rifkin, with hiring focused on top talent from Equinox, Nike, etc.
• Launch: First paying Pod Play customer onboarded summer 2023; spun out formally and raised an $8M Series A with Frontier Growth in late 2025.

Revenue Model and Growth (13:07–15:14)

• SaaS Structure: Charged primarily on a per-court, per-location basis, with tiers for software, software+hardware, and even full autonomous operations.
• Scale: Over 200 locations, more than 2,000 courts, approaching $3M contracted ARR, with 60%+ of clients opting for hardware-enabled tiers.
  • Quote: "We are kind of approaching 3 million in contracted ARR. We have a little over 200 locations signed up on the platform. I think we're over 2,000 courts now." – Ben (00:00, 14:28)
• Growth Rate: 100–200% year-over-year (15:08).

Series A Funding and Capital Efficiency (15:20–16:55)

• Previous Funding: $10M Series A raised for Ping Pod in 2022, partially seeded Pod Play.
• Pod Play Series A: $8M in October 2025 at a “market range” dilution (13-18%).
  • Quote: "It's not an unusual valuation in terms of kind of like dilution." – Ben (16:46)
• Frontier Growth: Strategic investor specializing in vertical SaaS.

Bits, Atoms, and the Future of SaaS in Physical Spaces (16:55–19:49)

• Weighing the challenges and stickiness of vertical SaaS for physical businesses versus purely digital products.
• Competitive advantages in domain expertise and unique customer data.
  • Quote: "If you can build a really valuable product for that market, it's incredibly sticky and it's incredibly valuable to the people who are running those businesses." – Ben (17:55)
• Discussion on leveraging unique data for services like lending to clubs and possible expansion into acquisition.

Rapid-Fire Insights: The Future of Autonomous Clubs & Profitability (19:49–23:46)

• Is the "ghost gym" the future? Ben argues that removing admin staff actually strengthens community by redirecting resources to coaching and events.
  • Quote: "When you walk into kind of a pod play facility, you should be walking into the future... you’re giving people flexibility, proximity, all of the things that they want." – Ben (20:18)
• How do clubs stay profitable without high hourly charges? Reduce labor costs, monetize video features, focus on ROI and user experience.
• Biggest hidden cost for founders: Structural renovation and time to open—a “white box” space is more valuable than top-tier real estate if it gets revenue flowing faster.
  • Quote: "The biggest kind of, you know, gotcha in starting a physical business that most people miss is if you can control the amount of capital that goes in and you can kind of reduce the time to get your doors open, you're going to have a much better ROI." – Ben (23:16)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On purpose-driven business:
  "Our mission is to increase the amount of fun being had in the world, which is a mission that pretty much everybody can understand." – Ben (01:38)
• Adversity and team bonding:
  "We forged our bond kind of for life during that period of adversity." – Ben (04:09)
• The social experience in automated gyms:
  "The human touch isn't necessarily a positive if the piece that you're, you know, if you have kind of front desk ... So the goal was like, can you kind of free yourself of that constraint and replace that with ... the future?" – Ben (20:07)
• Biggest founder pitfall:
  "You would prefer a slightly lesser location if you can get that white box that doesn't have a lot of structural work and you can put less money into it and get open faster than getting that kind of prime location if you have to do a bunch of work to it." – Ben (23:39)

Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment | |-----------|-------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Company scale: $3M ARR, 200+ locations, 2,000+ courts | | 01:20 | Hedge fund days, desire for purpose | | 03:31 | Black swan event and forging resilience | | 04:41 | Vision for autonomous clubs (Ping Pod) | | 07:25 | Early pricing and utilization figures | | 10:11 | Combining hardware and software for “viral” recreation | | 11:04 | Tech leadership and Pod Play team | | 13:07 | Revenue model, pricing, and scale | | 15:20 | Series A fundraising, investor background | | 16:55 | Physical vs digital SaaS, advantages | | 20:05 | The “ghost gym” debate and future vision | | 22:33 | Biggest hidden cost for new founders |

Where to Follow Ben and Pod Play

• LinkedIn: Ben Borden (Ben is active and posts regularly)
• Podplay Blog: podplay.app/blog
• YouTube: Pod Play official channel
• Instagram: @podplay

This episode is a compelling listen for founders eyeing physical-digital business models, vertical SaaS operators, and anyone interested in the modern intersection of technology, sports, and community. Ben’s candor about scaling, pitfalls, and the future of the industry delivers actionable insight with an energetic, entrepreneurial tone.